I’ve always vaguely assumed that Armenia was the shat-on underdog in this, what with turkish genocide and the overal politics of SOAD, but the sources I’ve found when trying to have an informed position on it all have been dry as hell, and I confess my eyes keep glazing over. And now I’m hearing Armenia is pro-Russia in the Ukraine conflict, and I could really use an ELI5.
… it’s shallow as fuck, but I really like Armenian music, a chunk of which is pretty fucking militant to say the least, and I’d kind of like to know which side of history I’m on if I rock out to it. I don’t super-want to be bopping along to the equivalent of nazi propaganda or having confederate-flag posters on my wall…
Armenians are christians, azeris are muslims(and ethnic turks). Turkey(Ottoman Empire) did a thing(genocide) on the armenians back in the day. Anyway eventually both countries were part of the USSR. The USSR collapses and all these new countries are created.
There is a large region in Azerbaijan, inhabited mostly by armenians(the azeris say the armenians ethnic cleansed the azeris from the region). This armenian controlled enclave in Azerbaijan is separated from Armenia. Wars ensue, things become as they are now, with many issues but relatively peaceful.
Fast forward to today, Azerbaijan has a lot of natural gas reserves, they are relatively somewhat rich and with the war in Ukraine, Russia(the ally of Armenia) refused to help Armenia and Europe has a huge appetite for non russian gas(ie for azeri gas). So Azerbaijan is in a very powerful political and economic position atm.
Azerbaijan is using that power to “solve the issue” by military conquering the armenian controlled enclave, knowing that Armenia doesnt have any military allies anymore(Russia refused to answer Armenia’s equivalent to NATO’s article 5 request for help) and Europe/West cant do much politically because they are extremely dependent on azeri gas.
Are the armenians the victim? Well, kinda. They are atm. But they were also the perpetrators in the past.
Armenia survived a genocide by the Turks, and right now it is once again being threatened by a Turkish ally that is being armed to the teeth by Turkey (https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-armenia-azerbaijan-turkey-arms-idUKKBN26Z22A). As someone else here said, they’re “pro-Russia” only by default because Russia is one of the few countries with which they have a defense agreement as no one else gives a fuck and Turkey is too important right now for NATO to upset them. I’m willing to bet they’d dump Russia if the world stood up for them.
Of course this is all a wild simplification but, Azerbaijan basically wants to take over all of Armenia and have a border with Turkiye. Armenia is “Pro-Russia” in that Russia is the only country offering to step in, and they desperately need the “peacekeeping” forces to keep Azerbaijan out. They kinda have to just go with whatever Russia says at this point if they want to continue to exist.
